Method and apparatus for finishing fabrics



p 1930- I I; L; SJGsTROM i 1,753,251

METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR FINISHING FABRICS Filed Oct; 3, 19'25 Patented Apr. 8, 1930,

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE F IVAR L. SJOSTROM, OF NORTH ANDOVER, MASSACHUSETTS, ASSIGNOR TO MANUFAC- TURERS MACHINE COMPANY, OF NORTH ANDOVER, MASSACHUSETTS, A CORPORA- TION OF MASSACHUSETTS METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR FTNIS'HING FABRICS Application med October a, 1925. Serial No. 60,325.

The present invention relates to the finishing of textile and similar fabrics, including cotton or linen cloth, whereby the goods are bleached, starched, or dyed, and dried, and are finally pressed and ironed on a calender, and is particularly concerned with the treatment of such fabrics following the stage where they have been dried after wet fabric and into the fibers thereof. On the other hand, however, it is particularly important that Water should not lie in separated particles on the surface of the web because then the calendered surface will not have a uniformly smooth and glossy appearance, but will be more or less spotted and mottled.

Prior to the advent of this invention, much difliculty has been encountered in cooling the goods after drying and in suitably dampening the fabric, which is then abnormally dry. These goods cannotbe properly calendered or pressed after drying unless they have the proper moisture content, uniformly distribut-' ed. This necessitates a thorough and uniform cooling from the high temperature of the drying medium to the lower temperature of the room atmosphere where calendering takes place. The methods employed heretofore for cooling and dampening the hot and abnormally dry fabric have been subject to many defects, and at best have consumed much time and have caused the amount of fabric passing through the process to be very large at all times. The ordinary practice is to allow'the goods, rolled up or plaited after drying, to lie for a suflicient period of time to be cooled throughout their mass.

This practice is called seasoning or age ing. Unless the goods'are thus seasoned or aged for a sufficient time, they will absorb Water non-uniformly when subsequently sprinkled, and if the goods are immediately calendered in such a state, the finish will be most unsatisfactory and variable and cannot be made uniform and satisfactory. Hence the good must be aged again after dampening to allow the moisture received from the sprinkling machine to become diffused throughout the mass treated.

Various short cuts have been attempted to eliminate the long and expensive time factor 7 thus introduced into the finishing of goods, but none of such attempts have succeeded in producing results of finish equal to those obtained when the extended ageing processes above mentioned have been faithfully carried out.

I have invented a mode of treatment and an apparatus for performing it, with which drying and the step of calendering or pressing, and without loss of time. In the accomplishment of the invention, I have'used as a part of the apparatus a cooling and conditioning machine essentially like that disclosed in my Patent No. 1,095,680, and alsoan atomizing apparatus adapted to atomize. water and thereby subdivide. it into an excessively fine mist, which atomizing apparatus is attached to and operates in'synchronism with the cooling and conditioning machine. lVhi'le' the conditioning machine referred to does not involve in itself any inventive features beyond those shown in said patent, nevertheless the combination in which it is used together with other apparatus, and the process carried out by its use in connection'with other steps, constitute new inventions for which I claim protection. J The water atom r is likewise part of the more comprehens apparatus which I claim, and

in addition in olves new features.

atomizer in operative combination with a. drier and a calender;

Fig. 2 is a cross section of a preferred form of my novel atomizer;

Fig. 3 is a perspective view of said atomizer;

Figs. 4 and 5 are sectional views illustrating other constructions of atomizer containing the same principles.

Like reference characters designate the same parts wherever they occur in all the figures.

Referring to the diagrammatic Fig. 1, (1 represents diagrammatically a drying chamher, or other drying means of any character,

in which a continuous web of cloth is dried by heat suitably applied, such as by contact with hot air, after having been subjected to a wet process, as part of the operation of bleaching, starching, finishing or dyeing the goods.

From the drier, the goods pass to a cooling and conditioning machine b,'which corresgonds in principle to the machine descri ed in my prior patent aforesaid. In the conditioning machine, the cloth is carried back and forth around guide rolls in a number of approximately parallel stretches, between which are arranged water conveyors or aprons c, which pass' around guide rolls and dip into a water tank d, or are otherwise supplied with a sufiicient content or surface coating of water. These aprons are constantly driven and they present a supply of water close to substantially the entire length of the fabric web in the machine, and so near to the web that the latter absorbs its normal and natural content of humidity in the form of water vapor evaporated from the water aprons, and is cooled at the same time, owing to the drop in temperature caused by said evaporation.

The cloth leaving the conditioning machine, being now at a temperature approximating that of the room in which the calendering is to take place, and'more particularly being at a uniform temperature throughout all parts of its mass and area, and with a content of water vapor uniformly distributed through, the fibers of the fabric, passes across the atomizer e, which continuously supplies an exceedingly fine mist of water in the vicinity of the web. The atomizer which I prefer to use involves novel inventive features which will be. presently described, and it is .or anized to subdivide the water into particles er than those delivered by the usual sprinkler or sprayer, and it has adjustable means for regulating the output of spray or mist to the end that more or less water in atomized form may be uniformly deposited on the goods as needed to obtain the desired quality of finish.

From the atomizer the goods pass to the calendering machine or calender f, in which there are a series of rolls g organized to apply pressure to the surface of the web passing between them, in a well known manner, thereby producing a finish on one or both surfaces of the cooled and dampened web passing between them. Nothing new is involved in the construction or mode of operation of the calender, wherefore no need exists of showing the same in any further detail than appears in the diagrammatic figure.

Ahighly important item or feature of my process is the proper dampening of the cloth after cooling it; and by proper dampening in this connection I mean the uniform and even deposition of moisture over the whole extent of the fabric, and the application of a suflicient quantity of moisture, without excess. Dampening in the highest measure of perfection is obtained with the use, as part of the previously described combination, of the atomizer which I am now about to describe containing novel features which I claim as an improvement in atomizers, as well as in combination with the complete apparatus for cooling and dampening cloth.

The atomizer comprises a casing or box, (to which the reference character 0 is applied in Figs. 2 and 3), in tlie lower part of which a quantity of water is contained, and in which there is mounted rotatably a device for picking up and throwing water. Such device may be made of a central core h and bristles or wires or their equivalent, h projecting on all sides from suchcore. I call this device a brush on account of its possible structural similarity to a circular brush, and also for convenience of description in order to give it a brief distinguisl'iing name, although it has no brushing function, in the sense of laying and spreading liquid over a surface. Its function is simply to pick up and throw off water with sufiicien-t force to cause the water thus thrown, when striking an adjacent surface, to be broken up into small particles; and any device capable of performing this function is equivalent to the so-called brush of my atomizer, and is included within the meaning of the term brush as used in this specification and in the following claims. I

prefer, however, to use as such brush a device consisting of arustless cylinder (previously designated as the core h), to the outer surface of which are applied rustless strips of wire cloth h, which strips are so bent and applied to the cylinder that they form ridges, preferably running lengthwise of the cylinder.

The brush, however it may be constructed, is mounted in the box with its major portion above the surface of the body of water therein, and its lower part slightly submerged in the water. In its revolution it picks up water and then throws off the water by centrifugal force. A brush of the type last particularly described has the advantage over brushes otherwise made that the wires of the cloth forming the protuberant ridges cut through the body of water without greatly disturbing it, and lift the water in small separated masses'or drops, so that the water is already largely subdivided before being thrown against adjacent impact surfaces.

The space in the box above the brush is covered to a greater or less extent by two rustless metal cover plates or walls '5 and j, the preferred construction and arrangement of which is shown in Figs. 2 and 3, but other arrangements are possible, including those shown in Figs. 4 and 5. Describing more particularly the first construction above mentioned, the cover walls or plates 2' and j extend with an upward slant toward one another from the opposite sides of the box, and one of them, the wall j in this instance, extends across the adjacent edge of the other and is adjustable angularly about an axis Whereon it is pivotally connected to the box. The other wall may be fixed as to its position, although it also may be similarly adjustable, if desired.

The adjustable wall is secured to a pivot shaft lying close to the adjacent side wall of the box in suitable bearings, and projecting at its ends be end the end walls of the box. On each 0 such projecting ends is mounted a worm wheel Z meshing with the worm m, the latter being fixed on a shaft 07.. The Worm shafts at opposite ends of the box are coupled by means of gearing 0, with a control shaft 727 having hand wheels 9 on its opposite ends, by rotation of which adjusting torque may be applied simultaneously to opposite ends of the pivot shaft 70. Thereby a space or slot 1' of variable width may be opened in the upper side of the atomizer for emission of the spray or mist produced by.

the atomizer.

Atomization of the water is effected by rotating the brush it at extremely high speed. Said brush is mounted on a shaft 8, one end of which protrudes from the box and carries a pulley t, driven by a belt t from a pulley 't (Fig. 1) on the conditioning machine, or otherwise in predetermined synchronism with the speed of the cloth-propelling agents in the conditioning machine. lVhen the brush is so rotated, it continually picks up water and throws the water by centrifugal force violently against the adjacent walls, including the cover plates. Much of the water thus projected strikes directly on the cover plates z'and j, and some of the particles rebounding from the points of first impact strike a second time on other walls or plates. The water is thus broken up into very fine particles, which circulate with the current of air induced by the brush in the atomizer casing. The smaller and lighter particles are carried by the air through the emission slot 1", but only the finest particles and only so many of them as remain in suspension in the air drifting out of the emission slot are so discharged from tending across and symmetrically located in respect to the web. Hence the water mist is discharged in a condition of uniform density across the whole width of the web and in a location such that the traveling web is uniformly exposed to such mist over its entire area.

As further ex laining the characteristics and advantage 0 the atomizer just described, in comparison with devices heretofore used for the same purpose, I may say that the sprinklers previously used throw so much water that a speed of 300 yards or more per minute in the cloth traveling past them is necessary to avoid Wetting the cloth too much,

and even then the particles of'water are so large and so unevenly distributed that the cloth is not moistened evenly. But with the atomizer of my invention, the water is so finely divided and so evenly distributed that the cloth may be run at any reasonable speed without receiving too much water, while, due to the synchronism bet-ween the atomizer and the conditioning machine, and by suitable adjustment of the atomizer, enough water them, one of them being adjustable so as to enlarge or restrict the width of such slot.

Still other constructions and arrangements are possible. Fig. 5 shows one such designed to deliver a mist of water to a vertically traveling web, to the end that either or both sides of the web may be dampened equally or unequally in amount by the use of two atomizers. In the last named alternative construction the casing and brush ofthe atomizer I are substantially the same as previously described, but the cover or top Wallis formed by r a single adjustable plate 3' which may be indined with a slant from its supporting pivot k substantially as shown. The emission slot 1* is provided between the edge portion of the sides.

cover plate and the upper edge of a baflie '0 which extends inward from the side wall in such a. location as to intercept drops of water thrown from the brush directly toward said slot. With'two such atomizers arranged opposite to each other. the cloth web 10 may be led in a substantially vertical direction between themgin'. its ns age from the cooling the calender,

and conditioning liy upon both and may receive moistur It will be appreciated from what has gone before that the cloth is cooled and otherwise of the ageing and seasoning step' formerly carried out by rolling up or plaiting the goods and laying them away for a varying length of time. They are the last steps needed, and

heretofore lacking, to establish continuity bctween the preliminary finishing operations of bleaching, starching, dyeing and drying and the final finishing operation, (calendering) and they perform the effect of condi tionmg and dampening the cloth in a perfectly uniform manner and far superior to the old process of seasoning. With the improvement made by my invention there is no loss of time in completing the finishing of the xcloth, and the amount of cloth undergoing the step of being conditioned is only that which occupies the conditioning machine and that which passes over the atomizer; altogether a matter of a few yards, as compared with many thousands of yards which are tied up in the seasoning process as heretofore carried out.

The continuous process of finishing thus made possible by mydnvention may be carried out with any desired rate of speed on the part of the traveling web. The desired cooling effect in the cooling and conditioning machine may be obtained by making that machine of sufiicient capacity to contain a great enough exposed length of the cloth and to expose the cloth for the necessary length of time to the cooling effect of air containing evaporated water. But even though a large conditioning machine might be needed in some circumstances, the bulk of the machinf'tis so small as to be inconsiderable in comparison with the space needed to hold the cloth undergoing the seasoning processes previously used.

While my invention includes the entire series of steps and the whole number of elements of apparatus, including the atomizer, hereinbefore described, it is not necessarily limited thereto. That is, a combination of less than the whole number of such elements and consisting of a cooling and conditioning machine, and a calender, in .series with the drying means, is operative and useful. fabrics need only so much moisture as is absorb'cd by them during their passage through the conditioning machine 6 in order to take a desired character of finish from calendering, while other fabrics require an additional moisture content, which is given them by the atomizer, inorder to get the desired finish. The atomizer therefore is not an indispensable element of the apparatus.

\Vhat I claim anddesire to secure by Letters Patent is:

1. In the process of finishing cloth by drying with heat, and calendering the combination with said process of the step of continuously cooling and dampening the cloth in the 'course of the passage of the cloth from the drying medium to the calendcrv 2. In the process of finishing cloth by drying with heat, and calendering in an atmosphere at a lower temperature than the drying temperature, the combination with said process of the step ofcarrying the cloth continuously from the drying medium to the calender and subjecting the cloth in the course of its travel to the influence of a cool and humid atmosphere which will bring the cloth to a temperature approximating that of the air surrounding the calender.

3; Finishing cloth by drying by contact with heated air, cooling by contact with cooler, humid air of substantially uniform temperature and uniform humidity throughout the whole width and length of the cloth web, dampening the cloth by exposure to a mist of water, and pressing the cloth, all in a continuous operation.

4. The continuous method of finishing cloth, including pressing, which consists in drying the previously liquid-saturated fabric web by contact with hot air, then continuously passing the dry web in proximity and substantial parallelism with a cool water surface, and continuously leading the cloth thence to a calender and pressing the cloth.

5. The continuous method of finishing cloth, including calendering, which consists in drying the previously liquid-saturated fabric web by contact with hot air, then continuously passing the hot dry web in proximity and substantial parallelism with a cool water surface of such extent in proportion to the rate of travel of the cloth that the cloth remains in the humid. atmosphere adjacent to said surface long enough to become substantially cool and to absorb its normal content of water vapor, and then leading the cloth to a calender.

6.- The continuous method of finishing cloth, including pressing, which consists in drying the previously liquid-saturated fabric web by contact with hot air, then continuously passing the dry web in proximity and sub- Some stantial parallelism with a" cool water surface of such extent in proportion to the rate of travel of the cloth that the cloth remains in the humid atmosphere adjacent to said surface long enough tobecome substantially cool and to absorb its normal content of water vapor, then exposing the cooled cloth to .a mist of finely divided water and finally calendering the cloth.

7. The method of finishing cotton and linen cloth which consists in progressively drying a traveling Web of wet starched cloth'by exposure to hot air, then progressively cooling the traveling cloth by exposing it in extended condition to a cool, humid atmosphere, and then calendering the cloth, all as a continu ous uninterrupted o eration.

8. The method of nishing cotton and linen cloth which consists in drying a web of wet starched cloth by contact with hot air, then immediately cooling the cloth by exposure in extendedcondition to a cool, humid atmosphere, then immediately exposing the cloth to a mist of water and thereafter immediately calendering the cloth all'while the cloth travels progressively through the foregoing steps.

9. The method of finishing by a continuous operation a continuously traveling web of wet starched cotton or linen cloth which comprises passing the cloth web in exposure to hot, dry air for a sufficient length of time to dry the web, then passing the cloth in proximity to a cool water surface and in exposure to a humid atmosphere adjacent to such surface for a long enough time to cool the cloth approximately to the temperature of the air surroundingthe calender, then passing the web into exposure to atomized water, and then immediately calendering the web.

10. An apparatus for carrying out the with: in described process which comprises the combination, with means for applying heated air to a traveling fabric web, and a calender, of

a cooling and conditioning machine between Eaid hot air applying means and said calen- 11. An apparatus for carrying out the within described processcomprising the combination with a heat applying drier, adapted to receive a traveling cloth web, and a calender, of a cooling and conditioning machine interposed between said drier and said calender and in position to receive the traveling web from said drier and to deliver said web to the calender.

12. An apparatus for carrying out the within described process comprising a drying apparatus adapted to contain and permit passage of a travelin cloth web, a cooling and conditioning mac ine arranged to receive such traveling web from the drying apparatus, a calender arranged to receive the cloth web issuing from the cooling and condition ing machine, and an atomizer arranged to discharge a fine controlled mist of water in "13. An apparatus of the character described comprising, in combination with a dryingapparatus, a cooling and conditioning machine and a calender, arrangedjn series for receiving in turn and acting upon a con- ,tinuous traveling. cloth web, an atomizer arranged in the course of said web between the conditioning machine and the calender, and having means for producing and discharging a finely divided mist;

14. An apparatus of the character described comprising, in combination with a drying apparatus, a conditioningmachine and a calender, arranged in series for receiv ing in turn and acting upon a continuous traveling cloth web, an atomizer arranged in the course of said web between the conditioning machine and the calender, said atomizer consisting of a casing containing water, a brush dipping into the water so contained, means for revolving said brush, and. impact surfaces adjacent to said brush in position to receive the impingement of drops thrown from the brush by" centrifugal force, said impact surfaces being arranged with'an adjustable emission slot between them adjacent to the said path. 7

15. An apparatus for finishing wet fabrics in a continuous operation comprising adrier in which a traveling web of fabric is adapted to be dried by heat, a cooling and conditioning machine arranged to receive the traveling cloth from the drier and propel it onward and including means for cooling and charging the air with water vapor ad acent to the traveling cloth web, an atomizer located be side the path in which the cloth web'leaves.

the cooling and conditioning machine, said atomizer; including a m'echanical'device for causing water to be broken into a fine mist driven by the cloth propelling means of the before named machine at a rate bearing a definiteproportion to'the rate of travel'of the cloth, and a calender located'to receive, pressand propel the cloth web after the latter has passed the atomizer.

In testimony whereof I have aflixed my signature.

. IVAR L. SJOSTRGM. 

